The present invention relates to the field of storage facilities, specially adapted for the storage, and eventually the transport of at least one article in a suitcase.
The cost of real estate and the growing price of a square meter of living space involve novel problems with respect to bulk and storage means.
By way of example, numerous furniture-storing companies have sprung up, and most often are asking prohibitive prices proportional to the volume to be stored.
Similarly, the development of different means of transport, work flexibility and weekend arrangements bought over the Internet at the last minute imply a growing need in the area of baggage.
Yet, airline companies very often tax the bulkiness of each item of baggage as vehicle boots are offering less and less space for fitting in several baggage items.
More generally, it is evident that conventional baggage, and more globally, storage means inevitably do not suit the needs of people who want to store bulky items or of travellers, nor the volumes transported.
This problem of storage and transport resurfaces identically in the area of wholesale distribution and freight: where articles or merchandise must be compacted for bulk and cost reasons, then transported.
As is known, there are vacuum transport slipcovers which permit articles to be compressed by producing the vacuum in the slipcover.
There are also suitcases which integrate this type of slipcover to protect and transport them, or even store them provisionally.
This type of slipcover is particularly adapted to seasonal textile items.
According especially to the document US 2005/0173439, current slipcovers have an envelope for containing textile articles.
This envelope mainly comprises a valve for extracting air contained inside the latter, which compresses the articles contained in the envelope.
Also, according to the known prior art, said envelope comprises at its lower end a plastic film extending substantially in a plan perpendicular to the vertical envelope, the plastic sheet being attached to a plate of corresponding dimensions, the latter being especially made of cardboard and optionally covered in fabric. Assembling the plate with the film is done especially by stitching.
This plate made of cardboard extends longitudinally and comprises at its ends folds which form, during compression of the articles, a basic parallelepiped in shape.
The compressed articles thus take the form of a parallelepiped.
However, since the plastic film and the soft-board plate work differently during shaping of the parallelepiped, the drawback to such a conception is that the plastic sheet tears off at the level of its attachment points with the plate.
There are also slipcovers, especially according to the document US 2006/0120631, in which the soft-board plate is placed directly in the base of the slipcover.
This type of slipcover has some disadvantages.
Especially in the case of improper positioning of the plate, after the slipcover has been filled and vacuum-packed, it is necessary to open this slipcover, decompress it, take out the article, and then appropriately reposition the plate.